Where to Find Pearls in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Pearls are one of the new items added to Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s July update. They can be used to craft furniture from the mermaid series, the DIY recipes obtainable from Pascal, and sell for a whopping price of 10,000 bells; more expensive than most fish and insects in the game! Even if a player isn’t interested in the mermaid furniture, a pearl’s monetary value definitely makes it a good find.

Of course, where are pearls found? They don’t wash up on beaches and can’t be found when chopping coconut trees, so how do players obtain these treasured little orbs? This guide will look at where players find pearls and tips on obtaining them.

Hunting for Pearls in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Just like finding other sea creatures, pearls can only be found out in the ocean. Make sure to equip your wet suit, or else you’ll never find any. Once out at sea, players will need to swim to find bubbling spots and dive down with ‘Y’ to investigate them. These bubbling spots randomly appear around the island, and are indistinguishable from one another; there’s no telling what lies at the bottom. Whether or not a player nabs a pearl is completely up to chance, and just like in real life, they’re quite rare. Players may swim around their entire island, and never encounter a single one. However, there is another way to obtain Pearls. Pascal, the otter philosopher, will sometimes gift players pearls in exchange for his favorite scallops instead of a DIY recipe. But Pascal only visits once a day, when players sometimes recover a scallop from the floor depths, so despite being a certain method for pearls, it is not guaranteed to happen every day. Otherwise, players will have to diligently swim in search of these randomly appearing pearls.

There are some methods players should keep in mind while pearl hunting that can make the process easier. The bubbles that indicate something has appeared spawn all over, so going in circles around the island is a better method than aimlessly swimming in hopes one spawns. Bubbles appear more often further away from the shore, so keep that in mind. While diving, players will come across sea creatures from bubbling spots. Some of these can net a good price at Nook’s Cranny when sold, so it’s worthwhile to keep them. However, because the player’s inventory space is limited, they can fill up pockets quickly. When pearl hunting, make sure to empty every pocket so as many sea creatures can be taken back as possible. Also, consider pearl hunting with friends. That way, significantly more ocean can be covered at once. Of course, that means having to divvy up all the pearls found among one another.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for Nintendo Switch.

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